National Australia Bank

Case Title:

Leveraging Collaboration to Maximize Enterprise Results

Program Name:

The Enterprise Leadership Programme

Delivery Locations:

California, USA

Challenge:

National Australia Bank (NAB) was at a critical point in its journey from pulling a major turnaround to becoming an industry growth leader. A key success factor to long-term growth was moving beyond national boundaries and realizing the potential of NAB as a global enterprise. This goal will be achieved through a group of aligned and empowered senior leaders who are actively committed to the success of the NAB enterprise, as well as the success of its respective business units.

Solution:

NAB partnered with Oliver Wyman/Mercer Delta and ALA to design a solution to accelerate the development of NAB’s top leadership as a source of competitive advantage. NAB leaders would engage with thought leaders from around the world on critical issues of enterprise strategy, innovation, leading in the face of global complexity and ambiguity, leveraging the NAB culture, and developing leadership bench strength.

As one of the pillars in this multi-tiered solution, ALA engaged leaders in the Silver Bullet Runway (SBR) – a fun, highly interactive, fast paced, business simulation that requires a high degree of team creativity, resourcefulness and collaboration. The simulation was used to highlight the need for independent innovation within business units, while maximizing the enterprise results.

Models of collaboration were tested in conjunction with leadership styles – all while under the real-time stress of resource constraints. Coaches familiar with the individual development goals of the leaders were engaged as observers during the simulation to provide feedback. The coaches reported the simulation was the richest laboratory they had seen for capturing specific observable behaviors.

Impact:

As a result of the Silver Bullet Runway simulation, the NAB Leadership Team came away equipped to lead with an enterprise perspective and have clear notions about what it means to “live the NAB brand” (they called it the “leadership brand”).

Today, National Australia Bank Group has over 12 million customers and 42,000employees, operating more than 1,700 stores and business banking centres globally. Its financial services franchises in Australia are complemented by businesses in New Zealand, Asia, and the United Kingdom.